BioBlitz recorded a total of 1007 species at Pourewa Reserve and Kepa Bush, over the course of 22 hours. This is an outstanding result and a credit to all the people who took part.

When was BioBlitz?: Fri 27 Mar, 10am – 11pm; Sat 28 Mar, 7am – 4pm

Where?: Pourewa Reserve, 111 Kepa Road.

Pourewa Reserve has recently been returned to the ownership of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei who aim to restore the mauri (life force) of the land. BioBlitz will provide them with data to inform their restoration plan. BioBlitz also recorded which species occur in the adjacent Kepa Bush, as this will act as a reservoir for Pourewa.

Note: there will be field trips in both Kepa Bush and Pourewa Reserve (see the list below). Additional tours and happenings will be posted via Twitter.

Okahu Rakau (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei) will provide further tours on Pourewa throughout both days, as and when required.

Please wear sensible footwear and clothing. Bring a torch if coming in the evening for light trapping moths with Dr Robert or the after-dark spider walks. Children under 16 years must be accompanied by an adult.

Lichens are extremely interesting but under-appreciated organisms. Some members of the fungi kingdom have joined forces with green algae members of the plant kingdom (or the blue-green algae of Cyanobacteria kingdom) to create a new life form … lichens!

You can download copies of these and other fun, educational posters from the Landcare Research website. (Scroll down the page to get to all the posters.)

Fungi (except lichens) = 233 – a fairly spectacular haul – the good dose of rain just prior – with the warmth afterwards no doubt helped.

Lichens = 60

Lizards and frogs = 1

Mammals = 3

Molluscs (land snails) = 8

Mosses, liverworts and hornworts = 35

Moths /butterflies = 27

Nematodes = 20

Spiders, mites and other arachnids 8= 4

Wasps, bees and ants = 125

Weta and other invertebrates = 23

Zooplankton/ protozoa = 2

GRAND TOTAL = 1251 SPECIES!!

(The Botanic Gardens database has nearly 7000 plant species & cultivars but we did not count them as they have been planted)

The total will probably be revised once the scientists have had a chance to take a closer look at some of their finds.

We had great weather on both days and, although it got very hot inside the huge base camp marquee during the afternoons, the temperatures were cool in the early morning & after dark. But that did not deter all the families that turned up for the spider walk (we saw some huge sheet web spiders and the glow of glow worms) and light-trapping moths.

Lots of school groups visited and it was great to see them all so enthusiastic and so well-behaved. Well done to all the kids, and the people who organised their visits. And great to see so many enthusiastic families … hopefully lots of budding young biologists out there who will come to the next BioBlitz in two years time.

We’ll be back with more updates and photos soon … in the mean-time, we’ve lots of gear to unpack and tidy away, sleep to catch up on, and reports to write about what was found. You can see the latest BioBlitz video on YouTube: